Okay. So... it's like way way way overdue... but let's go into a quick recap of the story so far. Skip this bit if you don't care and want to go straight back into the story. I just figured with as many twists as is in this story... this might help a bit.

An inspiration-less Trowa and newly Out-Of-Business and disowned Quatre wake up in a Vegas hotel room with no memories of the night before or how they came to be married. Both think their 'amnsesia' is caused by way to much to drink, even though all their friends- Relena, Heero and Wufei and Duo adamantly deny that either drank very much that night.

Deciding that there had to have been something between them to cause them to get married int he first place, the two strangers agree to try to make things work between them. Quatre goes with Trowa back to his rual Middle Of Nowhere Tennessee home-town and meets his big crazy family and learns a different pace of life than his own New York City one.

Along the way, we met Emily and Dorothy... both girls who seemed to have something to hide and may know more about what's going on than they let on... though their true knowledge is still being shown. Emily's cousin and aunt are out to kill everyone with knowledge of Quatre's 'doomsday device'- Wing Zero. Dorothy has mysteriously vanished in the aftermath of Trowa and Duo's sisters both being gravely injured when Trowa's house caught on fire- purposely, we find out, by a group of men apparently working for Duke Dermail.

We meet Megan and her family... who help Duo and Wufei adopt Meilan, a young Chinese girl. The Spanish-American family is now caught in a war they have nothing to do with and have nearly died just trying to survive. We gain insight on Midii Une... who was being blackmailed by... someone... with info on her past and her sister- 'Lady' Annika Une- who spent several years in a mental home and is now engaged to Trowa's aunt's ex-husband, Treize Kushrenada. After Midii tells her blackmailers to shove it, Treize is determined to find out who dared try to hurt his fiance' or his family.

Quatre's sister Iria is found dead... murdered by her own sister Ninette, though nobody knows this yet. Quatre... Trowa in tow... heads to NYC to deal with this new shock.

Duo and Wufei joined forces with Heero, Emily, and Midii to travel to New York to find Trowa and Quatre... since apparently no less than two factions of people want the two of them dead.

Heero's sister, Jezzy, is kidnapped by Dermail after helping to save Megan and her family and is taken to NYC. Dermail has stolen the device called Wing Zero and attempts to force Jezzy to use it. In a rash decision, Jezzy uses Wing to call a military missile to hit and destroy the warehouse she's being held in in an attempt to destroy Wing and kill Dermail.

Heero finds out where his sister is being held, and together with Trowa- who's had a row with Quatre- they head to the warehouse only to find a near mad Dermail... and only seconds before the warehouse explodes... with Heero's sister apparently still inside.

Wufei and Duo head to Sandrock HQ to find Quatre... only to be immidiately embroiled in a gun-fight.

Now... let's go figure out what new cliffhangers I can create for my dear readers!

PS... sorry about the delay of this chapter, and the shortness of the actual chapter. I've had inspiration flowing in for other fics lately, so my attention may have drifted slightly!

PPS... I'm sorry for all of the time jumping. But it's never more than a few minutes from scene to scene. Most everything going on now is all happening pretty much at the same time. Ie, Duo and Wufei's shootout scene happened pretty much at the same exact time as Trowa and Heero's conversation at the bar, with maybe a few minutes difference. The bit with Delana and company happened at the same time, as well. (Well, technically an hour apart, but still at the same time. I don't pretend to understand Time Zones or DST... and kidishcaresh can tell you how clueless I am! It sucks.)

#

Waking Up In Vegas

Chapter 48

#

Sei Lovecraft was royally PISSED.

That arrogant bastard had knocked her out, then tied her up! And worse! He left her alone... under the supervision of that naive brat of a spoiled princess!

That soft tone and sweet voice annoyed the hell out of her. So she was glad when unconsiousness wanted to claim her again, and let herself drift away.

The next time she woke... she was alone. As her head cleared, she realized her surroundings. She was no longer tied up in that old woman's house. She was alone, tied in some dark room somewhere. The world around her was quiet.

Sei smirked. They most certainly didn't know her that well, now did they? She spent a few moments twisting her wrist around. The ties were loose, but not loose enough for her to just slip free. She spent a good hour, she thought later, working on loosening the bindings before she was able to escape.

Stupid people, she thought, getting out of her 'cell'. Lock her up in a shed. Right next to a driveway full of defenseless cars. She knew she was at the Maxwell place. The vibrant purple and blue Jeep told her that much, as well as the horses grazing in their pastures.

Sneaking as best she knew, wincing a bit at the headache she still had, she slipped close to a plain little blue Ford that she knew belonged to Trowa Barton's sister. Inconspicuous and plain. Perfect. Oh, God, the idiots! The keys were even in the cup holder! And a cell phone! Oh, this was PERFECT!

She left the Maxwell place in the dust, cell phone to her ear and calling in a few favors. She had to get back to New York in a heartbeat. With her luck, she'd miss out on all the fun stuff.

She was so concentrated on what she was doing, she never noticed the two pair of eyes staring at her... or the two even heartbeats in the back floorboard of the car.

#

(A minute or so earlier...)

"JEZEBEL!"

Her head snapped up as she saw Jasper running into the room.

"Jezzy? What's going on? Why'd they all run out?"

Abruptly, it was like a switch had been thrown in her mind. She didn't want to die. Sure, she'd accept it... but she didn't want to die. And Jasper. Jasper would die and he wouldn't even know why. Or that she'd been the one to kill him.

"I'm sorry," she said, tears forming in her eyes. "It's the only way. I had to. We... we're all going to die."
"What? Jezzy what's happening?"

"This place is going to go 'kaboom'," she explained as Jasper dropped to his knees in front of her. She watched as his eyes widened in horror.

"Come on then! We need out of here!"

"Sorry. No time... We've got like maybe thirty seconds left."

"Oh, God..." Jasper sank down. "I..."

Jezzy sighed, and banged her head back against the metal of WING. A hollow ring sounded out... and Jezzy's eyes opened, immediately recalling the design specs. Titanium. Maybe...

"Jasper come on!" She snatched his hand and pulled him to his feet, scrambling inside the now dead machine.

"In!" she commanded, shoving him none too gently into the small cockpit.

"Jezzy? What?"

She ignored his fighting, and did the first thing she could think of. She threw herself on top of him, pressing him as far into the machine as possible... and she planted her lips firmly on his.

She barely had time to register what she'd done before her world was tilting, her eardrums nearly shattering with the noise as the earth moved beneath her. And as the world fell around her... she kept her lips on his.

#

Trowa didn't even bother checking for pulses on the three men who'd ran out of the building. Their bodies were burned and twisted. One looked like his neck had been snapped. The other's spine was nowhere near straight. And the last was nearly completely buried under a very heavy looking steel beam.

Truthfully, Trowa was more worried about the man he'd come to respect in the past hour. Heero's tears had dried quickly, leaving streaks down his dusty cheeks. And his eyes were frantic, yet cold. He was numbly, quickly looking through the rubble.

"Jezzy," he sobbed quietly as he dug around in no particular pattern.

"Heero," Trowa said. The man ignored him. "Heero," Trowa tried again.

"HEERO! Stop it! It's no use!" Trowa ordered.

"Shut the fuck up!" Heero shouted, turning to glare heatedly at him. "You don't know what the fuck I've been through. I've killed her once before!" His voice broke. "I can't loose her again. I can't!"

"I know how you feel, Heero! My house was set on fire with my sister in it! Come on. We shared the same DNA, me and her! I definitely know how you feel!"

Heero's face twisted in pain, and he sank to his knees in center of the now non-existent warehouse.

"We... we don't share DNA," Heero admitted quietly. "We're not related," he said.

Trowa blinked. "But... she's your sister?"

"Adopted," Heero clarified. "She just... fell into my life."

"Sisters tend to do alot of falling," Trowa observed.

Heero's chuckle was sad. "No... she literally *fell* into my life. She was trying to climb over the fence surrounding my military camp while I was walking the perimeter. She missed a foothold and tumbled about three feet, rolling and landing right there at my feet. That was the strangest thing that ever happened to me, meeting her. And possibly the best. Within ten minutes, she'd 'adopted' me. It took a couple months before I'd even admit I liked her. Years before I realized I loved her. She was my sister. We played brother and sister for others, just to cover why she was there, in an all boy camp. My father even had papers, saying she was my sister. After my father died... I wasn't old enough to assume legal guardianship of her, so family friends adopted us both, so once again I was her brother on paper as well as heart."

"If she's your sister in heart, then that's all that matters," Trowa comforted. "She obviously loved you."

"Too damn much," Heero muttered. "She always acts before thinking things through."

Trowa walked around, and began to dig amongst the rubble.

"What are you doing?"

"We can't just leave her here, now can we? We have to find her."

"No one could have survived this..." Heero said, looking around him.

"She did once," Trowa replied. "Quatre said she lived through that first explosion, right?"

"She did," Heero whispered, and began to stand up. Trowa grabbed a piece of charred metal and tossed it over his shoulders.

*Ping*

They both looked up at the almost hollow sounding ring of metal on metal, green eyes and blue looking back to where it had emanated from. Heero curiously rushed over, digging at where the sound had came.

"Oh my god..." Heero whispered as he brushed soot from a smooth, dented surface. It was white-silver beneath the ash... and he could faintly make out a familiar blue line. He knew the line was part of a pair of wings.

"Heero?"

"It's the Wing Zero," Heero practically exclaimed. "It's... it's in one piece!"

"It's not destroyed?"

"Titanium," Heero thought aloud. "The shell, the body... Quatre had it casted from Titanium alloy. Very strong... Trowa! Help me!"

Heero began to dig around it with renewed gusto, Trowa curious, confused, but joining in. It didn't take them long to uncover the opening, the side, blocked by a fallen beam. Heero peered into the dark interior, at the soft... barely visible... rise and fall of a still breathing body.

"Oh, god..."

"Heero? What is it?"

"She's alive!" Heero nearly screeched. "She's alive!"